Front Run The Week 6/16/25
The Financial Advisor You Never Had
Listen to the leader of Late Capitalism—he only inherited a rigged system.
This week, we revisit two powerful figures.
One built his own escape hatch.
The other inherited a ship and is trying to retrofit it mid-storm.
Speaking of ships...
The project I’ve been working on is inspired by one of the biggest and most beautiful vessels ever commissioned. I’ve dropped hints, posted OTE Stack pillars, and testing is underway. Paid subscribers will have first access — because owning the economy means getting in before the gates close.
Michael Saylor: The Real Leader of Late Capitalism
Michael Saylor didn’t just front-run the collapse — he called it, leveraged it, and rebuilt MicroStrategy around a single thesis:
Fiat is melting.
Software is commoditized.
Bitcoin is salvation.
He knew he couldn’t outpace Microsoft in enterprise software,
so he front-ran their balance sheet instead.
And it worked.
Microsoft didn’t call Saylor to talk about code.
They called to talk about Bitcoin.
They wanted financial advice — from a man TradFi never invited into the room. Because let’s be real: they weren’t calling Franklin Templeton.
That firm has over 12,000 financial advisors.
Saylor is one man.
With one thesis.
And he was early.
Saylor became the financial advisor you never had —
one who told the truth before the ETFs existed,
one who acted before the narrative was safe,
one who didn’t wait for permission.
This is how MicroStrategy became Strategy.
Jenny Johnson: The Inheritor of the Kingdom
Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton, is doing more than any TradFi executive to modernize the machine:
Tokenized funds across the U.S., Luxembourg, and Singapore
Real-time yield rails via the Benji Platform
Public statements that support blockchain and on-chain infrastructure
She’s sharp.
She’s early — for TradFi.
But make no mistake: She didn’t build the ship.
She inherited it.
Franklin Templeton is a legacy fortress built by her father over fifty years.
Now, she’s steering it through storms Saylor already escaped.
And yes — she’s doing it well.
But it’s still the same ship that told retail to stay away from Bitcoin when it was $4,000.
Remember:
Cathie Wood bought Bitcoin around $300.
That’s about half the price Tim Draper paid when he snagged his stash from the U.S. Marshals Service auction — a move that helped fund what we now know as Coinbase.
By the time Franklin Templeton gets the narrative right, it’s already been priced in.
Two Different Games
Saylor rewrote the rules.
Johnson is refining old ones.
Saylor didn’t wait for TradFi to catch up. He left the system and opened the drawbridge behind him.
Johnson is trying to tokenize mutual funds.
Saylor tokenized his entire corporate strategy.
Who do you follow?
The one still protecting the castle?
Or the one who built a new one — and invited you in first?
Saylor is the real leader of Late Capitalism.
Not because he beat the system, but because he saw it was rigged — and stepped out before it broke.
Now, do I believe Microsoft actually took his advice?
No — not directly. (Why admit the opportunity cost at 100K when Cathie Wood saw the future at $300?)
But being in the room is the point.
Saylor didn’t have to pitch it.
He earned that seat — without selling it.
And you know what?
That means more than being one of 12,000 advisors offering lukewarm takes on TradFi timelines.
This Week’s Signals
FOMC Countdown — June 17
Larry Fink says the debt is unsustainable.
Trump wants a 1% rate cut.
Powell can’t argue with math.
And if QE enters the chat, the entire market re-prices overnight.
Vaultseason > Altseason
Smart money isn’t looking at meme pumps.
It’s tracking Base TVL, Morpho vault flows, and stablecoin velocity.
Vaults are building quietly — while retail waits loudly.
TradFi Isn’t Buying Bitcoin — It’s Buying Protocols
Infrastructure is the new narrative.
The rotation won’t be televised.
It will be tokenized.
Vaultseason is here. Altseason only returns if Powell lights the fuse.
And that moment is closing in.
All of this, of course…
IMO.
This is crypto!
Always DYOR.
That said…
I research tokens to present to you, my reader-friends who don’t fall for headlines but ape-in on ideas. If you happen to be a supporter who bought me a coffee (upgrade) you would know that I usually present at least one new project a week, sometimes three if I’m feeling spicy.
If you caught my video on the AI Agent for Aerodrome a month ago, you would have had the chance to at least add the project to your watch-list. Reflect (RFL) is a token on Base blockchain that has risen 300% in the time since. It’s something I’ve predicted will fly across the Superchain.
Consider the loss on sound advice taken too late or never at all (Microsoft/Saylor). It’s a little something you can stir into your own coffee as you contemplate questions regarding your financial future.
Questions like:
Where do I put my money when someone like Tim Draper says Bitcoin makes the dollar unnecessary—in Bitcoin at 100K or more?
That’s a setup for sticker shock, if you ask me. It will happen somewhere between 120K-150K on the price of BTC. In the middle of some other panic, driving retail to the exchanges for the first time.
Then it’s on for Coinbase and the rest who’ll win on fees because they built the infrastructure. (No one, not even Coinbase talks about Bitcoin as a “percentage of.” Thus, retail is conditioned to looking at Bitcoin as “one Bitcoin”—sort of like a physical object; a house or a car. They don’t quite understand what SATS are about, nor have they been adequately prepared.)
Sticker shock will lead to FOMO into Alts with green candles, recognizable names from Web2 (Internet + Computer). It’s emotional participation because of the skewed perception that everyone’s getting rich but the ticker Y-O-U.
Will euphoria happen this summer?
It’s anybody’s guess…
What I do know is that the headlines will come out tomorrow. Same game, new week. Literally, millions bet against you.
If you’re reading this but not yet a coffee or boba-tea subscriber—I loves me some boba tea!—I ask that you consider the hefty price of Web2 for a moment. It’s anything but free; and it looks a lot like a death cross on a chart when you zoom-in and see that retail always becomes exit liquidity. Places like Substack exist for a reason.
If you’re here, you’re ahead of the ticker symbol I call BS…
Coming Soon: The Front Lines of Digital Identity
My next guest built Nametag after identity theft hit home—and now he’s leading the charge against deepfakes and help desk fraud with real-time verification tech.
Aaron Painter, former Microsoft exec and Founder of Nametag, understands what’s at stake as AI and privacy collide.
This isn’t just a cybersecurity issue—it’s an investment signal. When trust becomes scarce, the platforms solving it could be tomorrow’s biggest plays.
Paid subscribers will get first access to unreleased clips from the conversation—before anyone else.
If you're watching the rails of identity, capital, and Web3 converge, this is one to front-run. I might even ask him about Saylor being “in the room.”
Also on my mind is a privacy token that I recently covered:
Would you like me to ask my guest a question on your behalf? This is why I have CrowdWeave.
Check out my previous interview from The Chip Mahoney Show. Because about a week after it dropped, BlackRock said Quantum Computing is an issue they need to put at the top of the list.
Mochimo shot up 200% just like that. It’s one of the only quantum-safe projects out there. But unless you can use Vindax to trade, you won’t find the MCM token anywhere.
It’s all good because I’ll have more for you. I plan to wrap the Q-day curse into an interesting stock to present to you, something I’ve been tracking hard.
Have a good week, but remember:
The big guys may have six decks in the stack…
But what they don’t know is that you’re becoming an expert at counting cards.
I mean…
crypto.
-Chip